Business

The Most-Buzzed Startups at SXSWi 2013

Facebook's $1 billion or so purchase of Instagram last year launched many a tech entrepreneur's dream, but with it there was a tacit acknowledgment of scaled-down ambitions. Maybe you can't come up with the next Twitter, but there's always the chance that your app will win the lottery and make the big time.

The analogy is apt. Your chances of breaking through are literally about one in a billion at this point, though in theory a good idea will greatly increase your odds. Those expecting more than an Instagram Lite will be disappointed, but if you accept the premise that the next Facebook or Twitter isn't lurking somewhere in Austin this year, you may enjoy SXSWi on its own 2013 terms. Nevertheless, Hugh Forrest, Director of SXSW Interactive says he's already bracing for the post-show hand-wringing "There was no Twitter this year" columns.

"When Twitter launched in 2007, it wasn’t Twitter for two years," Forrest says. "If there's another Twitter, we won’t know until 2015. There's a weird kind of time lag."

For those who can't wait until 2015, here are some hot startups to watch this year, which we've grouped into categories:

Location-Based Apps

According to researcher NetBase, the most-buzzed startup for SXSW 2013 is the most-buzzed for 2012: Highlight. That app, which gives you info about people you pass by IRL, recently added photo features ahead of the show. The other most-buzzed apps are also location-based leftovers from last year: Glancee, Sonar and Banjo. That despite the fact that Facebook bought Glancee last May.

Some of the buzz is warranted. For instance, Banjo has made a dramatic shift between 2012 and 2013, focusing now on the “there” rather than the “here.” The service now allows users to tap into social feeds from a particular location, or from a particular event. For instance, a SXSW section of the app will allow Banjo users everywhere to see what’s going on in Austin in real-time.

As Google Glass moves from concept to actual product and Apple's rumored iWatch looms on the horizon, wearable computing seems poised to become a big new category. With those accessories may come a mania for recording all the events of one's life. If that's the case, then Light, an app that will record and store your PDFs, videos and other files on your ".Life disk" in a ".Life file." Another startup, Eevzdrop, meanwhile, is betting that there's an audience for people who want to share their lives via audio recordings.

Crowdsourcing

Several companies at the show are harnessing the power of crowdsourcing for different areas including hiring (Jobhuk), freelance collaboration (Collaborizm), dating (Hinge) and online shopping (Yabbly).

Finally, Koozoo bills itself as "the first crowdsourced network of continuously broadcasting smartphone video cameras that makes it easy for anyone to share fun and informative views of places and events" and lets you see the world via smartphone videos.

Do you need another social network in your life? A few startups are betting that you do, so long as they're specialized enough. Crowd Act, for instance, describes itself as a "subject-based social media and network." Close.com believes that you may want to start a social network with just your close friends and family. Finally, there's Hater, which is based on the idea that you'll want to share all the things you hate.

Personal Assistants

Another hot category is personal assistants. For instance, there's Charlie, an app that helps people "kick ass in their meetings and calls," according to Aaron Frazin, co-founder and CEO. Charlie does so by connecting to your calendar and prepping you on the people and companies that you are meeting with. Tempo, meanwhile, applies artificial intelligence to your calendar to make your entries more detailed and much more useful. Desti applies AI to travel queries. That app is only available in a few cities at the moment, but the company plans to expand. Finally, CityBot creates a personal itinerary for you when you enter a new city.

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